Flash of a shadow
by mochioshawott
Summary: The day started out like any other. Becky Botsford was on her way to school when she sees- or thinks she sees- Steven. An investigation leads them into a dark truth. Is it really Steven or someone-or something else? non shipping. College Hiatus. read profile for full info
1. Flash of a shadow

It was Monday morning, the bane of every school age child and under 18 teenager. The sweet recess of freedom ensured at least partially from the weekend had slipped away during the night hours. Back to school it was for those too young to work full time and those too old to do so.

Becky Botsford and her younger brother TJ waited outside at the bus stop that was shared with at least 3 other children. It was chilly with the onset of Autumn. The ground was rather damp as it had rained last night and everyone who had walked over the grass for even a few second had the bottom of their sneakers wet. The air was heavy with the smell of earth. A heavy loamy and even partially metallic smell. The small group of children chatted occasionally in an attempt to speed up time spent waiting for the bus as if it had anything to do with the bus itself. Aside from the siblings none of the kids knew each other. Two of them were in different grades and the other three were on different sides of the building.

The bus came without fail much to the mixed feelings of the regular riders. They boarded, scrambled for a spot on the bus and then rode to the next stop where they would then find ways to pass even more time until they went to their final destination.

Becky Botsford was neither the first nor the last stop on the route as was many of the other children. However her_best_ friend, Violet, was. Violet lived more on the edge of the public school district area. If she had lived a block further out she would have been sent to another school and the two would never of had met. Violet was pale-ish girl with platinum blond hair. She wore her usual outfit that day, a purple shirt under a blue coverall/dress combo. She was the best friend Becky could ask for at times. They both shared a love for horses of any kind, whether they be real or not. Violet was always willing to lend an ear to whatever problems Becky was having at the moment.

There were some problems she could not tell to Violet though. Being the local Superheroine and all there were times where she had wanted to just rant to someone about every topic under the sun even though there was only one or two things that she was truly mad at.

They talked and talked of many things, worries of school, weekly events and strange dreams. The bus stopped once again to pick up another student, this time a boy.

Toby McCallister III was another blonde, but far from dumb. He was infamous for his love of giant robots and mass destruction. In all honesty though, he did it only to get attention from the heroine. The only person he really felt matched his intellect. He passed blindly by her, only giving Becky and her blonde friend a glance.

They talked and joked for several more minutes as the bus made it's way to it's destination.

It was just an ordinary average day. Well, as ordinary and average as it can get in a city full of people with superpowers and non lethal yet active villains.

For a moment though, just a brief moment, Becky saw something she never expected to see again.

A shadow of a man who disappeared over two years ago.

* * *

A/N: I still have to plan out the storyline for 'That which never was' so have this other story I've been cooking up. I have up to chapter 7 planned out so I can keep going with this.

Special thanks/shout out to VoiceActressKurutta on deviantart. She drew up a picture and we had a convo that inspired this fic.


	2. Jars of Peanut butter

A/N: Happy to note this is the last of the school chapters..for now. Hopefully I'll never have to do another  
trio of school related drabble cause it's super boring and stuff but I need to hurry the chapter along but I  
have scenes and stuff in each of them that I can't just cram together into one chapter. Also as I said it's a  
transitional chapter. As stated in the last chapter stuff happens.

As lunch inevitably ended, it was back to classes. As the end of the school day drew nearer, attention  
and interest quickly dissipated into the seconds to the sweet release of the after school hours. As soon as  
the bell rang to announce the end of the mandatory school period the enthusiasm of the students shot up  
for the most part. The ride home was very much like the ride to school.

Among the books and papers were the familiar faces of homework of all subjects. Math, history, science the  
works. She smiled slightly to herself as she drew out the English homework. They were reading a novel  
about a girl who recently discovered she had a sister who died. It was short and she could have finished it  
multiple times already during the class period but then she'd have to go back and answer the questions.  
Plus being in public she couldn't just resort to her super reading speeds to finish before everyone else. It  
wasn't that it was a particularly intriguing book but it was a book , it would be no fun to  
talk about the book with other people considering she knew how it would have ended while they were still  
on chapter 3.

Not two hours had passed before Becky heard the oh so familiar alarm going off. There was a crime that  
needed to be stopped and a villain to be defeated. Leaning back in her chair, she sighed dejectedly. She  
enjoyed fighting crime, it felt like she was doing something to better the lives of other people regardless of  
whether she knew them or not. Knowing she had made some sort of difference gave her a warm feeling.  
Some days, however it felt more like a burden than a duty. Especially when the villains were being  
particularly fussy or whatnot. More often than not these fights were over in a matter of minutes. Getting  
one arrested generally took a few days, at most a few weeks. The lesser the villain the less time it took to  
get them shipped off the jail where they would be quiet for a while before even thinking of committing some  
crime.

For a moment she contemplated letting the police handle this and have them actually do their job. For the  
most part the police here were largely incompetent, being only good enough to handle civil problems and  
very low ranking villains. Whether this was because she had been spoiling the whole police force with her  
willingness to fight crime or if they were simply unable to deal with it was a question she had no answer to

"Word up." She murmured to herself.

The grocery store had been a very hot target early on in both her and the villains' careers. It wasn't  
guarded at all and there was a decent amount of money to be had there. Plus one could do their grocery  
shopping at the same time although it was more like grocery stealing.

Now a days, it had been left untouched as many began to learn that it was neither easy nor worth  
attempting to rob as they were generally caught soon after. Wordgirl wondered if it had been a lazy villain  
or perhaps even a new one. Crimes had been rather low lately, which was unusual. However most of the  
usual suspects and even the unusual ones were either in jail or simply had nothing planed to begin with.  
There hadn't been a whole lot of 'new' villains lately either. For the most part, any 'new' villains were one  
timers who would fail horribly and then never do anything crime related again.

Showing up at the crime scene she was surprised to find not a single villain there. No sign of chaos or  
disruption. Just a bunch of very annoyed and surprised people standing in line at the registers.

"What seems to be the problem, sir?" She asked.

The manager, who was working on of the registers looked up blankly. "The alarm malfunctioned."

"So...no villains?"

"Nope. Sorry to get your hopes up, Wordgirl." The responded cheerily.

"Ah...that's not a problem at all sir." She tried to sound happy as well but she felt annoyed in all honesty.

"Sir, you cannot buy 38 jars of peanut butter. That is simply too many jars. Also the paper says there's a limit of two jars per person."

"B-but I love peanut butter. Also where in the paper does it say there's a limit of two per person?"

That voice.

The voice that she no longer heard, no longer lived except in memories and in recordings. Outside of those realms it was nothing more than a corrupted scratchy version of what it used to be, just like the person it used to belong to.

Her mind went from surprise to suspicious in one fluid moment. There was only one logical explanation for this situation. It had to be one of LRW's clones. But out of everything there was to steal, why steal peanut butter? Why _only_ steal peanut butter? Why not peanut butter _and _jelly?

These were questions she could ask LRW later, after she destroyed this clone.

Faster than one could blink, she flew towards the source of the commotion and grabbed his wrist. She pushed him against a wall.

He blinked at her, confused and scared. His body trembled slightly and his breathing was short and shallow like he had just finished running a race. Having no choice but to stare at his attacker, he fidgeted slightly, even squirming in a vain attempt to get out of her grasp.

He didn't burst into a flurry of papers so he _wasn't a clone of LRW's._ Surprising. She quickly let him go before apologizing.

"I'm so sorry sir. I thought you were one of Lady Redundant Woman's clones."

He raised his eyebrow curiously while he started rubbing his wrist. "Lady Redundant Woman?"

"She's one of the local villains in this city." She said lightly, still eying him.

While the man looked like Steven there were looked a lot like him. Except for the hair color, this man had a lighter shade of brown. A mix of dirty blonde and light brown. Maybe it was a relative of his? That could explain why she thought she had seen him.

"Say, do you happen to know a Steven Boxleitner?" She asked hopefully. This should solve everything.

He tensed for a moment like a child who had been asked a question he hadn't studied for. His eyes darted for a split second and he was silent.

"A-Ah I know..._of _him. I don't.._know_ him though." He stammered somewhat seemingly unsure of how to answer.

It struck her as odd. It had been a simple question yet he hesitated.

"Are you sure?" She wanted to see if it happened again. There might be something up with him.

"Yes. I am very sure. I have never met this man in person nor do I know any information about him. Other than whatever was written in that one book he wrote a while ago." He said with much more confidence now. There was no hesitation, no stammer, nothing.

"Just asking. Sorry for slamming you into a wall earlier."

"Oh, ok. Er...I gotta go...somewhere.." He muttered.

And with that he was off.

With all 38 jars of peanut butter.

AN: I'm not overly happy with how this chapter went. To be honest I could have planned this part out a lot better.

edit: I /finally/ finished editing this. It was so hard to read. I'm never double spacing again. Also I uploaded the last chapter twice so now I have to go run off the upload this chapter again.


	3. The Dinner date

A/N:Change of 3rd person narration! Also this is a set up for a quick two or three chapter arc that's rather important. WordGirl shows up again in next Chapter.

It was a simple dinner party, very fancy. Men in suits and women in their fine dresses. Not their finest though, after all this was only a business party. Still one had to dress the part.

Most if not all of the major business that happened to reside in the city had come together. It was less for the food and more for the owners, bosses and CEO's to check each other out. To see if they could make a move on each other. In a way it was like a game of chess. You had to smile, keep a friendly poker face on when talking to the others lest they sense weakness and try to take home part of your net worth.

It wasn't unusual for the big dogs to bring along their secretaries, their little lap dogs to these sorts of get together although the married ones generally brought their wives instead.

Those who came alone were either new or had no one who was even desperate enough to work as their secretary or whatnot. fell into neither of these categories and yet he stood alone awkwardly.

A suave man in his early thirties walked up to him, a fine lady arm in arm with him. His cream colored hair with light red-brownish tips matched his light suit. After taking a passing judging glance at his competitor, a slight smirk on his face.

"Oh, . How _lovely_ to see you. Are you alone? Or is Leslie doing something.._else_ with her time."

Mr. Big kept a straight face.

"Oh, she's…on a date. With some guy. I don't need her here. I'm capable of handling this situation." He said in a sad attempt to get back at the other man and his subtle remark.

"Well, she deserves it. A date with a nice man, I hope? After all, she deserves someone who will be good to her. She already does so much for you." The light haired man said slyly.

Mr. Big bristled at what the other man was implying.

"I'm sure she's enjoying yourself. Why all these questions about my secretary anyway?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Simply wishing goodwill towards you and your company." He replied, giving him a foxy smile.

The two men continued their idle banter while the party moved forward, with other wealthy people working on their relationships on which their personal and financial lives relied on.

All the while, Mr. Big couldn't help but let his mind wander back to Leslie. He used her to run a lot of errands and then some. This was not a secret to the rest of the business community. Some ignored this while others preferred to use this as a way to, in the very least, annoy him.

The truth of the matter was he just was not very good at doing most things that weren't related to making money. This coupled with large ambitions, albeit mainly silly ones, required him to rely heavily on his assistant.

He never really did think about Leslie other than necessary help but now he wondered how much she enjoyed being away from him.

Leslie, although she could not answer his question directly, was enjoying herself quite a lot. Like the business party she too was in a fancy place having dinner. It might not have been very extravagant but it was rather nice. Perhaps it was a bit over the top for a first date but it was still very lovely.

"I hope this place isn't too..you know..much. Er- by that I mean-" He was all over the place. Worried that he was being too awkward.

"No,no it's fine. I always imagined a first date would be a bit..less fancy." She responded as she tried to reassure him that he had not just messed everything up.

"Is it? I've-never been on a date before. I've always wanted to try it at least once." He fidgeted slightly, looking away as he fiddled with his jacket.

"So, what exactly is it that you do for a living?" She asked. On the inside she winced a little, noting that it felt like she was holding an interview more than just going out to dinner with a nice man she had met.  
Then again, wasn't that what dates were? Interviewing potential spouses?

"I'm a scientist." He responded casually. "I work on technology and so forth."

"What does a lovely lady such as yourself do?"

"I'm a..secretary for a business man. It's not as exciting or intellectual as a scientist."

He laughed lightly." That's surprising. One as smart as you. You know, I would have figured _you_ were the boss."

It was no big secret in the business circles or even the work place that Leslie was the more competent of the two. Still, it was nice to hear someone actually acknowledge it instead of treating it like some sort of taboo.

"You are too kind, Mr.., I'm sorry I forgo-"

He cut her off, filling in the blank for her,

"Boxleitner. You can call me Steven though, if you'd like,Miss Leslie."

A/N: I"ve been debating over whether or not to keep the 3rd person narration only to WG -she's also switching 'narration' with TB at some point- or keep it open. So far it's only been WG's 3rd person narration but then again it's not only because she's one of the main characters. It's mostly cause she's the only it works for. Because I edited this chapter a lot -originally this was going to be another drabble chapter and another 'Steven' was going to pop up but I decided that I really don't wanna write anymore drabbles and that other Steven no.2 doesn't really show up after that cause I already planned them out. It's hard to describe what's been changed in this chapter without spoilers. Then again I kind of already spoiled it with the above..


End file.
